Having seen the animated Spider-Man television series from the 90s as well as its spiritual successor, Spider-Man: Unlimited, I feel animated Spider-Man television series can do no wrong! To further cement that opinion in me, I’ve since watched a third animated Spider-Man television series entitled The Spectacular Spider-Man.
Read on for my thoughts!
(Caution, there will be spoilers!)
As with all Spider-Man television series, you get the traditional Spider-Man plot. High schooler Peter Parker (voiced by Josh Keaton) is bitten by a spider in a lab resulting in him acquiring superpowers. He uses these powers to battle criminals in his hometown including Tombstone (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson), Green Goblin (voiced by Steve Blum), Doctor Octopus (voiced by Peter MacNicol), Electro (voiced by Crispin Freeman), Kraven (voiced by Eric Vesbit), Rhino (voiced by Clancy Brown), and Sandman (voiced by John DiMaggio) amongst others.
He also tries to balance his crimefighting with his personal life working as a photographer for J. Jonah Jameson (voiced by Daran Norris) at the Daily Bugle and taking care of his Aunt May (voiced by Deborah Strang). Not to mention the struggle to be a successful high school student and deal with his numerous love interests including Gwen Stacy (voiced by Lacey Chabert), Mary Jane Watson (voiced by Vanessa Marshall), and Liz Allan (voiced by Alanna Ubach)!
I absolutely loved this show! It may even be my favorite animated Spider-Man television series so far! The art style gives off a very comfortable and intimate vibe that makes you feel like all the characters are your own family and friends.
Josh Keaton does an amazing job voicing Peter Parker providing all the quips we expect from Spider-Man as well as providing the caring nature of Peter Parker. The other voice actors were all great too, many of them being voice actors themselves with a celebrity thrown in here and there. It’s also cool that every named character in this iteration is an actual character in the Spider-Verse!
Like I mentioned before, Peter Parker has a multiple of love interests in this iteration! Heck, even Felicia Hardy (voiced by Tricia Helfer) and Betty Brant (voiced by Grey DeLisle) make appearances! Gwen Stacy is portrayed as the most important one though and you just want Peter to choose her, but also get so frustrated at him for not making a decision and hurting others in the process like Liz. You get so heavily invested in his relationships!
The change in scenery by making this a high school setting as opposed to a college setting (like the 90s television series) is a refreshing take. It helps you relate with Peter Parker more as he’s at that age where he’s trying to figure out the right thing to do in all situations.
The worst part about this show was that it was sadly cancelled due to low viewership and TV rights returning to Marvel a mere few months before Disney purchased Marvel. A whole additional three seasons with even more characters was originally planned! Not to mention that the sudden cancellation left many stories incomplete.
I know this television series has a fanbase and I’m proud to say that I’m amongst them. If you haven’t checked out The Spectacular Spider-Man yet, I highly recommend doing so. It in quite spectacular indeed!
The Animation Commendation 
Hot take: Norris blew Simmons out of the water.
Wow, a hot take indeed! But I did think Norris did a very good job!